The legality of the European Central Bank’s Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme

The COVID19 crisis has a big impact upon the European economy. To restore its transmission mechanisms and mitigate the financial impact the European Central Bank(ECB) introduced its Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP). A €750 million purchasing plan. This paper discusses the legality of these plans using the European legal framework and the recent framework generated by the German Constitutional Court (GCC). This paper claims the PEPP is legal under the European framework. The PEPP would not have been considered legal by the German Constitutional Court, though this probably changed with some of the recent developments. This paper furthermore analyzes the impact of this programme upon the mandate of the ECB. It describes the change of the role of the ECB from a cautious bank to a bank ready to fight a crisis. This role has generated tension between the core and periphery countries. These tensions result from the underlying flaw in the EMU which can only be solved by further integration or disintegration.